Day 1 – Cut vegetables in small pieces to speed cooking time.Day 2 & Day 18 – Keep a backup in the freezer for nights when there’s just no time.Day 5 – Save recipes that need hands-on time for nights when life is a bit more relaxed - or - you’re sharing cooking responsibilities.Day 10 – Cook more than you’ll need to have either leftovers or “planned overs” for another night.Day 11 & Day 14 – Stock up on bags (not boxes) of frozen vegetables. The flash-frozen quality is terrific, the price and convenience can’t be beat. Supermarket brands can be at least as good as name brands and often cheaper.Day 15 – Jars of minced garlic and fresh ginger are big time-savers.Day 41 – A quick knife job can be faster, total time, than a food processor.Day 94 – When reading a new issue of a food magazine, or scanning a new or even a much familiar cookbook, mark the most promising pages with post-it notes. Pencil in short-hand reminders such as ‘spring’ or ‘fall’. Underline a distinctive ingredient. This saves time when you come back later looking for something special to cook. Day 114 – Sometimes, even something fresh might need to rest awhile before it’s ready to eat.

Day 4 – Prepeeled carrots have no flavor when cooked and peeling/chopping a pound takes only 6 minutes.Day 12 – Salted vegetables taste better!Day 12 – Contrary to what seems obvious, Grade B maple syrup is more flavorful and coveted than Grade A.Day 13 – Roast thick spears of asparagus, steam or sauté the thin ones.Day 18 & Day 21 – For added flavor, use bacon fat rather than olive oil or butter.Day 19 – Roma tomatoes have no taste and thus are a waste.Day 23 - Try a new food again, even if it doesn't taste so good the first time.Day 31 – Use leeks to impart a sweet onion taste in cooked dishes, use “sweet onions” such as Vidalias in raw form.Day 35 – Crush dried herbs between your fingers before adding to a dish. Day 321 – Canned tomatoes just can’t cut it in salsa

Day 11 & Day 27 & Day 44 – Sauté vegetables in water or chicken broth, not fat, especially if there's fat to be added later.Day 20 – Watch the nutrition labels on canned diced tomatoes for some contain corn syrup.Day 26 – Plan on a pound of vegetables for four servings.Day 26 – In general, one pound of most (though not all) vegetables cooked with one tablespoon fat means each serving is equivalent to 1 Weight Watchers point, two tablespoons of fat is 2 Weight Watchers points, etc.Day 58 – Roast asparagus (and perhaps other vegetables) with cooking spray rather than olive oil or butterDay 88 – Use cooking spray to “butter” the bread for grilled cheese sandwiches without calories Day 105 – Watch for Florida avocadoes which have significantly fewer calories than California avocadoesDay 142 – If you’ve been over-eating, don’t start to diet by eating less, eat CAKE.Day 164 – Pizza lovers, beware Day 205 – Create a low-calorie standard meal for days when the other meals are rich and overindulgentDay 230 – Secrets to a long life from National GeographicDay 252 – Canned vegetable broth, undrinkable, uncookable? Day 267 – Seeking antioxidant-rich vegetables, an odyssey!Day 301 – Sugar snap peas are great for managing the munchiesMay 24th, 2006 – How much is a “serving” of pasta?

Day 12 - For boiling, the proportion of water:salt is 4 quarts:1 tablespoon.Day 19 – An easy way to chop basil and other leafy greens.Day 21 - Develop your own 'for instance' techniques that can be used on different kinds of vegetables.Day 24 – Leave a bit of stem on beets while cook to preserve moisture and flavor. Beets are easy to peel either before or after cooking.Day 28 – What does “water to cover” mean?Day 31 – How to clean leeksDay 34 – How to clean spinachDay 56 – A great new way to “boil” carrotsDay 58 – Roast asparagus (and perhaps other vegetables) with cooking spray rather than olive oil or butterDay 62 – How to make cheese sauceDay 86 – How to remove the skins from tomatoesDay 92 – For amazing green beans, cook them in a lot of water with a lot of salt - for a pound of beans, 8 cups of water and 3½ tablespoons of salt. Day 99 – How to dice carrots in a flashDay 105 – How to dice an avocadoDay 109 – Great way to use up a frig full of leftovers – see also Leftover MagicDay 119 – Put aside summer’s tomato bounty for winter dishesDay 120 – Quick-cook greens to use another dayDay 127 – To make it last longer and stay fresher, wrap a bag of celery in aluminum foil before refrigerating.Day 187 – Tips for cooking perfect Brussels sprouts Day 208 – How to roast beetsDay 212 – Wanna eat more broccoli? Learn how to aggressively trim broccoliDay 272 – How long does it take for alcohol to cook off?Day 284 – Leeks have much “light green part” likely going to wasteDay 288 – Use the “dark green parts” of leeks in vegetable stockDay 292 – Eggplant can be a substitute for noodles in lasagnaDay 299 – Roast a butternut squash whole, no cutting, no peeling Day 319 – Should you remove parsnip cores?Day 330 – Use up leftover vegetables, especially some root vegetables, in a puréeDay 331 – How to steam broccoli, cauliflower and carrot in the same pot, at the same time, perfectlyDay 336 - How to bake brown rice in the ovenDay 359 – How to roast peppers in the oven – including do’s and don’ts

Day 7 & Day 45 – Plant a few herbs in pots or sunny corners of the garden. Even those with brown thumbs can grow rosemary, chive, sage, mint and thyme.Day 32 & Day 42 – No matter what Mom says, it’s perfectly okay to play with your food!Day 40 – Read the labels on frozen vegetables: the pictures may not represent what’s inside.Day 58 – Perfect and perfectly fresh need little adornment Day 66 – Find some enticing at the farmers market but don’t know what to do with it? Buy it anyway, you’ll find lots of ideas onlineDay 86 – Find a comprehensive, reliable source (mine is Mark Bittman’s How to Cook Everything cookbook) for how to cook vegetables, so that when you find something new at the farmers market, you’ll be more willing to seize the opportunity (and oh dear, for a complete contradiction, see Day 158)Day 91 – Perfectly innocent-looking recipes can consumer a huge portion of a day’s calories. Write to your congressman – no, not your congressman, write to the editors of your favorite sources of recipes, magazines, cookbooks, etc. to encourage them to include nutrition information on every recipe.Day 126 – During the peak of the vegetable growing season, don’t buy any one vegetable in bulk unless you’re going to can/freeze or are willing to forgo everything else while using up one thing!Day 158 – Do a little research before trying something new. If it turns out well the first time, you’ll be more likely to try it again (oh dear, this is entirely contradictory to Day 86).Day 161 – Collect favorite family recipes in a family cookbookDay 230 – Secrets to a long life from National GeographicDay 242 – Can veggies make you sick?Day 340 – Well-organized bookmarks can make the six o’clock scramble a breezeDay 357 – What it must be like to be a new cook, not knowing technique or language

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